Psychosocial Recovery Services

rom 1 July 2019, the way psychosocial support services are delivered across Australia has changed.

Psychosocial support is a term used to describe programs and activities which are designed to support people with severe mental illness achieve their recovery goals.

As part of this change, participants of the Partners in Recovery (PIR), Personal Helpers and Mentors Service (PHaMHs) and Day to Day Living (D2DL) programs, which ended on 30 June 2019, are receiving their support though the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) or PHN-funded psychosocial supports.

Murray PHN has funded psychosocial supports across the Murray PHN region under a single banner of Psychosocial Recovery Services (PRS).

What are psychosocial supports?

For Murray PHN funded services, psychosocial supports are services that work in partnership with individuals who are not more appropriately supported through the NDIS and are significantly affected by severe mental illness, which has an impact on their associated psychosocial functional capacity.Our services, in partnership with families and carers (as appropriate), provide a range of non-clinical community-based support to these individuals to achieve their recovery goals, including supporting people with:• developing social skills and friendships• building family relationships• managing money• finding and looking after a home• developing work goals• improving educational skills• staying physically well, including with exercise• support with drug, alcohol and smoking issues• building broader life skills including confidence and resilience.

Psychosocial Recovery Services eligibility

You may be eligible for Murray PHN-funded psychosocial supports if you:• have a severe mental illness and are not currently receiving supports through an existing program• were accessing services from PIR, PHaMs or D2DL on 30 June 2019• are ineligible for the NDIS or do not yet have an NDIS eligibility decision or plan

How can I access Psychosocial Recovery Services?

If you were a participant of PIR, PHaMHs or D2DL programs, you should talk to your support worker or contact the service which provided you support.If you are not receiving support through these programs you may contact one of the PRS providers below, based on your place of residence.

Are there other psychosocial support programs available?

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) supports people with a permanent and significant psychosocial disability that affects their ability to take part in everyday activities. More information on the NDIS can be found here or you may contact your nearest NDIS Local Area Coordination Service by calling 1800 522 679 in NSW or 1800 242 696 in Victoria.The State and Territory Governments also offer services for psychosocial supports in partnership with clinical mental health services. In NSW this will be delivered through the Housing and Accommodation Support Initiative (HASI) and Community Living Supports (CLS). In Victoria, this will be delivered through the Early Intervention Psychosocial Support Response (EIPSR) program.

Murray PHN has developed guidelines to inform the delivery of Psychosocial Recovery Services, which can be found here. Guidelines

Murray PHN’s role in Psychosocial Recovery Services

Murray PHN has responsibility to ensure psychosocial services are available to those people who need support and there is no gap in service delivery with Commonwealth services ending on 30 June.We are working to support the establishment and implementation of new service arrangements with existing providers, including supporting participant transition both within and between existing providers.We are also supporting providers to assist participants to test their eligibility for NDIS, including those who are hard to reach, through our NDIS Transition Support Officers across the region.

For more information

Contact Catherine Mather, Psychosocial Systems Lead

email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone: 02 60 410 045.

Continuing to raise awareness of mental health within the Loddon community; the Loddon Healthy Minds Art Competition is on again in 2019!

This year we have two themes

‘Mental health matters to us all’

OR

‘Mental health begins with me’

These art themes are challenging entrants to explore why mental health is important to everyone, and looking at their own mental health.

As usual there will be two sections, an Open section for those over 18 and a Junior section for those between the ages of 14 to 18.

Eligibility:• The open section of this competition is open to all Loddon Shire residents aged over 18 years• The junior section is open to all Loddon Shire residents between the ages of 14 to 18 years of age

Artwork entries:• All work is to be completed within the last 12 months and solely by the artist• Size of artwork is to be 1 metre square maximum and A4 minimum (needs to be transportable)• Any medium can be used (painting, drawing, photography, sculpture etc.)

Literary entries:• 500-1000 words related to the theme• Mental health focus – with all people de-identified• preference for typed entries

Prizes

For the Art Competition, prizes will be as follows:-

Best in Show:To the value of $70

School section best in Show:To the value of $60 (The Best in Show winning entry (if a school entry) is eliminated from this judging round)

Artwork Entry: All artwork is to be completed and delivered to the Loddon Shire office at Wedderburn or Serpentine by the first Monday in August.Enquiries: Community Wellbeing OfficerTelephone: (03) 5494 1230Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

There are mental health and wellbeing services available in your community through the Flying Doctor Wellbeing program, which is offered by the Royal Flying Doctor Service Victoria.

Flying Doctor Wellbeing provides free confidential mental health appointments with no need for a GP referral. You are able to access 6 free sessions with a mental health clinician through a face-to-face meeting or via telehealth.

To access the service you must be aged 18 or over, live or work within 60 minutes of Boort (the local service site) and experiencing:

The Loddon Healthy Minds Network are delighted to announce the winners of the 2018 Art Competition. A total of 34 entries were received this year, based on the themes “Stop Mental Health Stigma” and “Words For Wellbeing”.

This year also saw our first literary entry from Wedderburn College student Alexis Timu who wrote a great piece titled “Stand Up”.

And the winners are..........

Best In Show Anne-Maree HansenBest In Show (Schools) Sophie Perryman (Boort District School)

On Friday 23 February 2018, the Hon Jacinta Allan MP, Minister for Public Transport and Minister for Major Projects, Member for Bendigo East officially launched the carers video.

This video has been developed in partnership between the Loddon Healthy Minds Network and the Bendigo Health Carers Support Program, and involves carers of people with a mental illness talking about their experiences.

Organisations are encouraged to save a copy of this video and use as appropriate.

To register, please click on the link to the Eventbrite booking schedule above.The registration form provides the bank account details to allow payment to be made. Please include your name in the description section.

General registration $250

Suicide rates in rural and regional areas are considerably higher than those within the metropolitan setting. People in rural areas face more risk factors and challenges that contribute to this.

This forum focuses on strategies and programs that work in rural areas.A range of presenters have been selected to address some particular high risk cohorts in our region, including farmers, LBGTIQ, youth and so on.

RSVP by Friday 24 August 2018

If you are unable to attend the event after your RSVP, it would be appreciated that you let the Loddon Healthy Minds Network know as a courtesy to organisers and sponsors.(03) 5494 1230This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Forum Sponsorship

Sponsorship opportunities are available on the day, please click on the link for further information regardinig how to apply for sponsorship: sponsorship form

As advocates in the mental health and suicide prevention area, the group of people identified as LGBTI represent an area of particular concern for the Loddon Healthy Minds Network. This is because the statistics tell us that LGBTI people are the most at risk group in our community when it comes to mental health and suicide. These figures are documented in the report by the National LGBTI Alliance. You can download a copy of the report below.

When people talk about reducing suicide and reducing mental health issues in our communities, you would think the best place to start would be the highest risk groups. Unfortunately there is little evidence to suggest that this is being done.

Too many deaths by suicide each year in Australia are from the farming community. Every suicide or attempted suicide has a ripple effect as it impacts friends, family, colleagues and entire communities.

Because of the stigma associated with suicide, many of the experiences of those affected by suicide remain untold.

The Ripple Effect has been developed by the National Centre for Farmer Health, Deakin University, the Victorian Farmers Federation, AgChatOZ, the Mental Illness Fellowship North Queensland, Sandpit and Western District Health Service as part of beyondblue's STRIDE Project with donations from the Movember Foundation.

What is stigma?

Stigma happens when a group in society are not regarded with the same respect as others. There are numerous definitions but, put simply, stigma is primarily a problem of behaviours resulting in the unfair and inequitable treatment of people. Stigma involves a variety of myths, prejudices, and negative stereotyping of people with mental health issues.

Nearly half (45%) of Australians will experience a mental illness at some stage of their life. Despite this, people living with mental illness will often experience stigma and discrimination from friends, family, employers and the community as a whole. (Copied from the Murray Partners In Recovery Site)

More...

Loddon Healthy Minds Network has representatives from many various organisations. There are quite a number of professionals who contribute their expertise and knowledge to the running of the organisation.

The Network recently felt it was appropriate to list these partners and acknowledge their involvement. Being professional organisations, they all had a nice logo to add to the front page.

That was all but one group of people though; our Community Representatives.

Community Representatives are integral to the working of the Healthy Minds Network. They are the ears and voices of mental health and advocacy to the Network. These people give up their time freely to contribute to the betterment of mental health and wellbeing within our Shire.

A logo has been approved by the Committee for use by the Community Representatives. In the form of a tree, it is representative of having it's roots in the Loddon Shire. The trunk of the tree represents the Committee and the leaves are representative of the community representatives feeding back into the committee and the Shire.

No logo would be complete without the Healthy Minds logo itself sitting at the heart of the image.

Council is currently seeking expressions of interest from residents of Loddon Shire Council to represent the community on the Loddon Healthy Minds Network committee. The Committee currently has vacancies for two community representatives.

The Loddon Healthy Minds Network promotes and advocates for improved wellbeing and access to appropriate services for people in Loddon Shire affected by mental health issues. Meeting are held bi-monthly on the third Wednesday of the month and take place on a rotating roster throughout various locations of the Loddon Shire. Compensation for travel to meetings is provided.

If you have an interest in improving mental health and wellbeing in the wider Loddon Shire community we would be interested in hearing from you. Further queries may be directed to Wendy Gladman, Director Community Wellbeing on 5494 1226.

The National Rural Health Alliance is Australia’s peak non-government organisation for rural and remote health. Its Vision is good health and wellbeing in rural and remote Australia and its goal is equal health for all Australians by the year 2020.

Partyline is an online magazine published by the National Rural Health Alliance, containing articles and information promoting good health and wellbeing in rural and remote Australia. Partyline Issue 56, August 2016 contains a number of articles related to mental health and wellbeing:

Stigma is so common in our communities surrounding mental illness. Generally though this is because of a lack of understanding of what mental illness is all about.

One of the first things we should remember is that the person is not the illness. John is not schizophrenic, John has schizophrenia. Mary is not bipolar, Mary has bipolar. Mental illness is no different to physical illness. It can be just as debilitating and cause just as much pain and problems in a person's life.

Need Help Now?

If you need help now, talk to a friend, a family member or call your Doctor immediately. Alternately, you can contact the numbers below:

If life or property is threatened, call 000 immediately

Bendigo Mental Health Team - 1300 363 788. This is a 24/7 service.

Lifeline - 13 11 14

Legal Disclaimer

Please note that the information provided on this page, or anywhere else on the site, is for general information only. It is NOT intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice from qualified practitioners. If you have concerns regarding your mental health, seek help from suitably qualfied people.

Member Organisations

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